New Jersey Turns To Ocean Energy Sources As Utility Rates Soar

By: Madison Miller 

With electricity bills skyrocketing, the legislature is considering alternative sources of renewable energy, including boosting community solar programs and studying the ocean’s potential tidal power.

The Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee on June 12 passed A-1478, which requires the Board of Public Utilities to study the viability of harnessing ocean wave and tidal energy. Supporters say New Jersey could be a national trailblazer on its use.

Custom-designed buoys, converters and other technology can tap wave and tidal energy for consumer use.

“Due to our vast shoreline and offshore resources, New Jersey could be a pioneer in exploring and evaluating wave energy from economic as well as environmental perspectives on the Northeast coast,” Jasmine Mettelus of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters told lawmakers. 

She said establishing ocean energy potentially would complement better-known renewables like solar and offshore wind. New Jersey, which had set a 100% renewable clean energy goal of 2035, has been hampered by President Donald Trump’s pro-fossil fuel policies.

New Jersey electricity rates, set by a regional transmission auction last year, spiked on June 1. The average household will pay $20 more per month, according to state utilities regulators. PJM Interconnection, the wholesaler that sells grid access to local power companies, says the rates are being driven by power-sucking artificial intelligence data centers and increased domestic manufacturing.

Though renewable energy holds promise to increase grid supply, some Republicans were wary. Assemblyman Paul Kanitra, from Point Pleasant Beach, said he worried that any ocean-energy project would have a negative impact on Jersey Shore communities and businesses.

“In theory, this sounds like it could be good, but some of the parallels to offshore wind are concerning to me in terms of, how much is this going to industrialize the ocean? How is it going to affect our marine and fishing industries?” Kanitra said.

Assembly member Christian Barranco, a Republican from Pompton Lakes, voted against the bill and said the state should focus on existing technology to cut costs.

“This is not going to help us in any way with the freight train that we’re facing of electrical costs in New Jersey,” Barranco said. “Everything that takes away from the fact that we need generating assets, turbines spinning right now, is getting in the way of what we need to do to make sure we don’t go broke paying our electric bills.”

Meanwhile, the Senate Environment and Energy Committee released S-4530, which would increase capacity for community solar projects.

Those projects allow communities to install solar panels en masse, rather than on individual properties. The approach benefits renters and underserved neighborhoods that lack solar access.

This bill would open registration for 3,000 megawatts of additional solar energy statewide. That’s enough to power more than a million homes.

“Solar is critical because it allows for a just transition and equal access to clean energy, including … New Jerseyans who may rent their homes and not have access to their own roofs,” said Jesse Sutherland of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters.

Some were concerned about cost transparency for consumers.

“While we appreciate the goals of this bill, we are concerned that it is too much, too fast, and we need to make sure that there is sufficient generation to meet this goal, and that the subsidies to be paid by ratepayers are not over-burdensome,” said Maura Caroselli, the New Jersey Rate Counsel’s managing attorney for gas and clean energy.

Ben Dziobek, founder and executive director of the Climate Revolution Action Network,  supported the bill because of the increased demand for energy, with artificial intelligence industries and data centers requiring more resources.

“We are in an extreme time of energy need, with expanding usage from AI and other industries, and right now we also have lost the majority of our wind industry in New Jersey,” Dziobek said.  “We’re going to need to find ways to get that energy from somewhere else.”